Inside a Chinese internet addiction boot camp (20 Photos)

In an effort to cure the country’s internet addiction, China is looking towards its kids, and sending some of them to a military-style boot camp to wean them off their online addictions.

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There are as many as 250 internet addiction camps throughout the country. Each center uses military instruction to inculcate habits of discipline.

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Parents usually pay twice the average Beijing monthly salary, around 1,700 Renminbi to send their kids to places like these.

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Once inside, these internet-addicted kids are kept behind bars and guarded by around-the-clock soldiers.

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Kids are forced to clean, wash, cook meals, and take part in military-style drills during the four to eight-month-long boot camps. Classes also cover music and traditional Chinese lion dancing. Basically, anything away from the computer.

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A nurse distributes medicine at the Daxing centre.

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An instructor talks to female students in their dormitory.

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Some internet boot camps also take part in research projects and scan the brains of addicts.

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There’s no clear indicator of what constitutes an internet addict in China.

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Students take part in music class during an internet-free few months.

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A teacher talks to an instructor through a window of a door at the Qide Education Center.

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Students are given military-style punishments at the internet-free boot camps.

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Students clean and wash during their months away from home.

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Some kid does sit ups instead of blogging or something.

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Therapists believe that a child’s internet addiction arises out of loneliness or China’s extremely competitive culture.

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Treatment also includes hours of therapy. And medication is given out in an effort to aid the kids in the program.